Budget 2009

Budget 2009 (assuming that it gets passed) contains the following promises regarding education:

Investments in Knowledge Infrastructure

The Government will advance Canada’s knowledge advantage by:

• Dedicating up to $2 billion to repair, retrofit and expand facilities at post-secondary institutions.
• Providing $750 million for leading-edge research infrastructure through the Canada Foundation for Innovation.
• Providing $50 million to the Institute for Quantum Computing in Waterloo, Ontario to build a new world-class research facility.
• Allocating $87 million over the next two years to maintain or upgrade key Arctic research facilities.
• Providing $250 million over two years to address deferred maintenance at federal laboratories.
• Providing $500 million to Canada Health Infoway to encourage the greater use of electronic health records.
• Providing $225 million over three years to develop and implement a strategy on extending broadband coverage to unserved communities.
• taken from Finance Canada's web site http://www.budget.gc.ca/2009/plan/bpc3d-eng.asp, Jan 2009

Complete information regarding the budget can be found at http://www.budget.gc.ca/2009/plan/bptoc-eng.asp

My opinion is that the spedning on infrastructure is required, however the budget does not other funding issues, such as monetary support for University staff. I believe that this budget will do nothing to close the widening gap between American Universities and Canadian Universities. Please submit your opinions below: